Matthew 6:11

“Give us today the food we need.”

Have you ever wondered why we ask God for food on a daily basis? Why not ask him to supply us for a week or even a month? God wants us to live in continual partnership with him. Every day we need to turn to him to obtain the nourishment that we need. This applies in both a physical and a spiritual sense. Just as we need to eat each day so too we need to ensure that we are receiving spiritual nourishment. However excellent last Sunday’s church service was, or however blessed we were by yesterday’s time of prayer, we need to open ourselves to the breath of God’s Spirit today. We need him to strengthen us to live for him in the particular challenges and opportunities of this unique day.

I am struck by the fact that everything in this prayer is plural. The prayer begins with the words “Our Father in heaven” and here we pray for the food that we need. The moment we start praying we identify the fact that we are part of a family and when we think about getting fed it isn’t just about my empty stomach or my spiritual needs but about what we all need. Physical food is available in abundance in this world but people have very unequal access to it. In some countries even today there is starvation, and in others, including our own, there are immoral levels of food waste. When we pray the Lord’s Prayer we are taking our share of the responsibility for ensuring that food is made generally available to everyone throughout the world. When we pray that God will feed us spiritually we are expressing a longing that he will nourish everyone else as well. If you are feeling thoroughly well fed in body, mind and spirit that’s excellent, but it isn’t enough. Pray that that same blessing will extend to men and women everywhere. What we are learning is that the Lord’s Prayer is incredibly radical. Through it, we are praying that God will fundamentally change our world.

Question

In what way do you need to be fed today? And how can you be praying for others today?

Prayer

Lord God thank you that your understanding of me is so complete that you know exactly how I need to be nourished today. Amen